to make enquiries after the number of unprotected lunatics who are living and wandering about in every district, simply because it has not suited us to afford them the requisite shelter. We cannot fairly plead want of time. Our Government in Bengal is older than that of the United States; but in this matter, can any comparison be fairly made, at least with any advantage to us? While in the United States Asylums are to be found on the grandest scale, and adapted for the reception and treatment of every class and every degree of insanity; we in India actually cannot give room to those lunatics alone who are positively dangerous to the public. We have kept our money, and have suffered the lunatic to live and die a wretched martyr to our little benevolence and our love of lucre.

In the year 1855 there were four Asylums in Bengal ; viz one at Russa in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, one at Dacca, one at Patna, and one at Moorshedabad. Since the publication of the Report published by the order of the Government of the North Western Provinces and to which we have before alluded, one other Asylum has we believe been opened near Calcutta for Europeans. In the North Western Provinces there were and are still three Asylums-namely, one at Delhi, one at Bareilly, and a third at Benares. At Lahore or in the Punjab anywhere, there was not one. Among other suggestions, the Medical Board observed that "the re-establishment of an Asylum at Lahore" is needed. And they go on to say that "there is no provision for the wants of the Punjab in this respect." We are however credibly informed that the suggestion has since been attended to, and that there is now one Asylum at the capital of a province which was until very recently a Kingdom. The Asylum at Russa and that lately opened by the Government at Bhowanipore for Europeans may still be considered one, divided into two parts, one division being allotted to Europeans and other Christian patients, the other exclusively to Natives. The former was until lately private property, but has recently been purchased by the Government, and placed together with the Asylum at Russa in the charge of a Medical officer of repute, whose attention and time are entirely devoted and restricted to them. This is a step in the right direction, but it is only one step out of many which are just as much needed. The European institution can accommodate 75 inmates only. It was opened in the year 1817 by a private individual, and is the only institution devoted to Europeans throughout our dominions. The practice has been to send soldiers home to England, who are insane-a plan which we deprecate for a two fold reason; namely, that the man thereby loses the benefit of early and systematic treatment for some months and what in these cases can be of more conse

quence than early judicious treatment-and secondly, that, it seems more than probable that the climate of this country is not especially prejudicial to the treatment of insanity.

We

It was our desire to have placed before our readers, a short history of the rise and progress-which was doubtless very gra dual-of our regard for and care of persons afflicted with insanity, on this side of our Indian Empire, so far indeed as any such feelings have been indicated, but we have failed to ascertain the dates on which these few Asylums have been established, and opened. But the information is not of much importance. know that we have seven or eight Asylums for native patients when we ought to have twenty times that number. The Report to which we have before made reference says "nor is there any thing surprising in the fact, that the Lunatic Asylums of India contain such a small portion of the insanes of the country. Fifty years ago, the number of insanes in England, i. e. of known insanes, was comparatively small, and it has been found steadily to increase, since the attention of the public and of the authorities has been directed to the subject.

"But even if those insanes only, whose being at large is positively dangerous to the public, were sought out in this country, the Asylums now in existence could not contain them;" and further, "the complaint is universal that the buildings are too small for the present number of patients and that in most ca ses they are not capable of extension." Moreover we are informed that the existing Asylums could in 1855 accommodate comfortably 750 patients only, while that on the 1st of July 1854 they contained 1041 or in other words, that, just 300 more unlucky individuals were crammed into these buildings than they were adapted to receive. We have thus not only been guilty, of a great omission in our want of care for the insane, but we have been actually adding injury to affliction, for in a tropical climate no error is more pernicious than that of over crowding in a badly ventilated building.

But let us examine the condition of our population, and ascertain if possible if there be any pressing necessity for an immedidiate increase to the number of our asylums. If we judged by the existing number of such institutions we might very fairly infer, that, the inhabitants of India were peculiarly favored, and, that the proportion of lunatics to the general population was extremely small; but unfortunately we have no just grounds for the entertainment of such an opinion. The Medical Board in their report state, that

"It appears by the last census, (made in England, for we have no such thing made here) that the proportion which the lunatics in

asylums bear to the general population, is 1 to every 1,115 inhabitants of Great Britain, and it has been calculated that in England there is 1 insane to 1000 of the whole population, or including idiots, it has been said as many as 1 to 854. In less civilized countries, the proportion of insanes is believed to be smaller. In Spain and in Italy, they are supposed to be about 1 in 4000 and in Russia and in uncivilized countries, the proportion is still smaller, highly civilized natives being more subject to this malady than barbarous ones, at least according to the most commonly received opinion.

"For India our data are very imperfect; still we have every reason to believe, that insanity cannot be infrequent, when we reflect that it has long enjoyed a state of considerable civilization, when we find that in the Madras Army, for twelve years, insanity manifested itself annually in 1, 2 per 1,000 of the men, and that in Regiments of Native Infantry of the line in Bengal, the cases of insanity appear to average about 1 per 1000 of strength.

"Such results, however, could not have been obtained from the records of our Asylums, for only 149 of our sepoys have been admitted into them during the last ten years. Perhaps some insanes may not be returned as sepoys, being struck off the books of their Regiments.

"But let us make a very low estimate, say that only 1 in 8000 of the population of Bengal and the North West is insane, and take their population at seventy millions, and we should have 1,500 insanes, of whom 1,041 are taken care of by Government, or about one-eighth of their total number."

If among a body of picked men, the average be about 1 per 1000, it is not unreasonable to infer that the proportion would be found greater if the adult population of the country were taken indiscriminately. We ourselves doubt much whether insanity be actually more prevalent among civilized than among uncivilized nations-it doubtless assumes very different forms- -a highly educated man would probably not be affected in the same way as the ignorant, uneducated and the superstitious man-but is it not possible that among civilized populations greater notice is taken of those afflicted with lunacy, and that thus an apparently greater proportion of insane to the population is made to appear. "Fifty years ago, the number of insanes in England, i, e. of known insanes, was comparatively small, and it has been found steadily to increase, since the attention of the public and of the civil authorities has been directed to the subject." Thus the Medical Board writes in their Report. England has not emerged from a state of barbarism to one of civilization in fifty years-and it seems fair to suppose that, in all other countries as soon as the attention of the public and of the authorities shall be drawn to the subject, a similar increase of lunatics will be found to exist. In India we are convinced that enquiry will end in this result. The Medical Board suggests "that the attention of the

civil authorities be directed to the vast numbers of insanes and idiots who must be going at large in their districts," and then they go on to say, that, "much care has of late years been bestowed in various European countries on the education of the latter, and with gratifying results."

The writer of this article has been enabled through the courtesy of the Magistrate and Deputy Magistrates of a district not far from Calcutta, to ascertain the number of confirmed and well known lunatics whe were at large within their jurisdiction in the month of February last. They were so far at large that all were supposed to be nominally in the custody of their friends. The number was eighty-one, of whom sixty-eight were males and thirteen females. This statement probably gives us a correct total of the old and confirmed cases, but includes neither those which are recent, nor such as are less aggravated, the nature of which is perhaps not very well developed, and not readily recognized by an unprofessional eye. However we are satisfied to take the statement for what it is worth. If in the month of February last, eighty-one lunatics existed, it is not improbable, that, the number would reach one hundred by the end of the year, supposing of course that none have died in the interim. At any rate-we might calculate on having one hundred cases for treatment during the year-if we had an Asylum to make use of. Unfortunately we have no census and are therefore unable to declare the relative proportion of the insane to the population in this district. We can only aver that we have eighty-one insane persons wandering about in an unprotected cordition, to whom it is our absolute and positive duty to afford protection. These people are nominally in the custody of their friends and relatives, who are not,-nor indeed can they be expected to be very judicious or painstaking in the management of them. They wander about, night and day, frequently in a state of nudity, and very often almost starved, being dependent for subsistence upon the charity of those around them. Although harmless to others, they are at any moment liable to suffer from some cause or accident, or from the vicissitudes of climate themselves. Moreover they lose the benefit which might accrue from the administration of appropriate moral and medical treatment; and thereby miss the chances of a restoration to a sound condition of mind, which both discipline and medicine are justly esteemed able to afford. In this country, these people are, in the majority of instances, quiet and inoffensive to others. We have not therefore in these pages to advocate the expediency of protecting society against them, but of affording protection of themselves against the consequences of their own infirmities and afflictions. By far the worst result of the sys

tematic indifference which has hitherto been manifested on this subject, is, that, many of these poor creatures might very probably be restored to a healthy condition of mind again if they were promptly placed under the requisite moral and medical treatment. Dr. Forbes Winslow, than whom we have no higher authority, says in his Lettsomian Lectures on Insanity :—

"It is necessary that we should, before being able to appreciate the effect of medical treatment, entertain just and enlightened views as to the curability of insanity. I now speak from a somewhat enlarged experience, from much anxious consideration of the matter, and I have no hesitation in affirming that, if brought within the sphere of medical treatment in the earlier stages, or even within a few months of the attack, insanity, unless the result of the physical injury to the head, or connected with a peculiar conformation of chest and cranium, and an hereditary diathesis, is as easily curable as any other form of bodily disease for the treatment of which we apply the resources of our art. Can there be a more lamentable error, or a more dangerous false, or unhappy doctrine than that urged by those who maintain that the disordered affections of the mind are not amenable to the recognised principles of medical science? I again declare it to be my positive and deliberately formed opinion, that there are few diseases of equal magnitude so susceptible of successful medical treatment in the incipient form as those implicating the normal action of thought. The existence of so vast an amount of incurable insanity within the wards of our national and private Asylums, is a fact pregnant with important truths. In the history of these unhappy persons-these lost and ruined minds-we read, in many cases, recorded the sad, melancholy, and lamentable results of either a total neglect of all efficient, curative treatment at a period when it might have arrested the onward advance of the cerebral mischief, and maintained reason upon her seat; or of the use of injudicious and unjustifiable measures of treatment under mistaken notions of the nature and pathology of the disease. In no class of affections is it so imperatively necessary to inculcate the importance of early and prompt treatment, as in the disorders of the brain affecting the manifestations of the mind. I do not maintain that our curative agents are of no avail when the disease has passed beyond what is designated the 'curable stage.' My experience irresistibly leads to the conclusion that we often have in our power the means of curing insanity, even after it has been of some years duration, if we obtain a thorough appreciation of the physical and mental aspects of the case and perseveringly and continuously apply remedial measures for its removal. I cannot, however, dwell too strongly upon the vital necessity of the early and prompt exhibition. of curative means in the incipient stage of mental derangement."

The above remarks are made by a man whose whole life has been devoted to the study and treatment of insanity, and are worthy of the fullest consideration of every Government of every Presidency and of every Province of the Indian Empire. If then